Relaxed. Composed. At ease. Dana Perino comes across as not having a care in the world, despite the fact she’s knee-deep in the ­middle of a ­multistate road show to ­promote her new novel, Purple State. Her busy day in Dallas includes three book signings plus an interview with the 43rd president of the United States.

Through it all, she’s cool, calm, and collected. Then again, when your day job is ­co-hosting the most-watched ­program in cable news — The Five on FOX News Channel — back-to-back meet and greets and a fun get-together with your old boss are a welcome change of pace.

In a quiet corner of a private club far removed from Dallas’s hustle and bustle, she’s as much the interviewer as she is the interviewee.

“Who knew there was a literary genre called small-town romance?” she asks.

FICTION DEBUT. Perino’s previous works include I Wish Someone Had Told Me … The Best Advice for Building a Great Career and a Meaningful Life.

As it turns out, Purple State is the latest entry in a long line of celebrated stories that feature the farms and ranches often found in The Land Report. Think Virgin River and Steel Magnolias.

This interview with Dana Perino has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Purple State revolves around the lives of three New Yorkers who find true love in rural Wisconsin. Do any of them resemble the author?

Dot is probably the most like me, and Mary is a person I wish I were more like.

Purple State begins in the Big Apple and then pivots to rural ­Wisconsin.

Do you know that I wanted to be a travel writer? I admire that skill so much. Some of my favorite feedback on the book has been, “I love the detail. I love that you know New York. And I love that you know Wisconsin so well.”

That brings us to the town you created, Cedar Falls. When did you get to know Wisconsin? On the campaign trail?

Actually, I only spent 48 hours there doing research for the book. But I’d go back and forth with a couple of people on all sorts of details.

You don’t shy away from politics.

I just wanted to write a good story. But in 2024, there was a stat that came out that said 62 percent of young women ages 19 to 29 would never consider ­dating anybody who didn’t vote the same way they did. I just thought we are wearing our politics way too heavy.

In all likelihood, you’ve written the first novel that hinges on CFIUS.

That goes back to my days at the White House and Dubai Ports, which was an obscure situation. Basically, the government requires foreign companies that want to make a big purchase in the United States to go through the ­Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to make sure that it meets the national-security requirements of everybody such as Treasury, Commerce, DoD, and Energy.

That was definitely a first for a novel.

And for me. No reporter I worked with had ever heard of CFIUS.

RANCHER’S DAUGHTER. Dana credits her father, Leo (right), for teaching her countless life lessons.

That opened the door for your trio of talented New Yorkers to save the farm.

I got the idea for that part of the book after hearing about this town in ­Wisconsin that teamed up with an electronics company out of ­Taiwan to build a multibillion-dollar LED TV manufacturing plant. This was in 2019. First thing they did was they bought some farms. Then, they started ­threatening the farmers who didn’t want to sell. At a certain point, they started using eminent domain to take some of the holdouts. These were multigenerational family farms. The worst part is, after they finally built this huge factory, COVID hit and not a single LED TV was ever manufactured. 

Sounds like that hit home.

I’m a rancher’s daughter. People in Weston County, Wyoming, are ­skeptical of everybody. They want to contribute to society, but they don’t want to have the heavy hand of government all over them all the time. That’s why I talk about 4-H in the book. Those types of things, they are institutions to me and my family.

Tell me about the Perinos.

My great-grandfather came to ­Wyoming to work in a coal mine in the 1880s. He was from Northern Italy, from Torino, and he met my great-grandmother over here. Even though they were from the same town in Italy, they met in America.

Your great-grandparents started out as ­immigrants and ultimately became ranchers?

That’s right. My great-grandfather got 160 acres through the Homestead Act. The way it worked is that he was required to live on the land for five years and to make certain improvements: build a structure, dig a well … things like that. “This is all we’ll ever need,” he told my great-grandmother. They were very self-sufficient. Decades after they settled, when the Great ­Depression came and then the Dust Bowl followed, a lot of people in that area folded and left. Not my great-grandparents. They not only stayed put, but they bought up everything around them. At its height, the ranch totaled about 50,000 acres.

Tell us more about the ranch.

The place my great-grandfather chose was in a ­canyon right in the Black Hills of Eastern ­Wyoming, and it was beautiful. That’s where I spent most of my childhood. Growing up, we lived in Denver, and we spent as much time as we ­possibly could at the ranch. I hold it very fondly in my heart. It shaped my whole life. All my favorite memories are there.

It sounds like it made a major impression on you.

It definitely did. My dad was a member of the Future Farmers of America. That’s where you learn so much about leadership.

Did any aspects of life on the Perino Ranch make it into ­Purple State?

Definitely. The Sunday ­supper that I describe in the book — the Last Supper where all the kids and all the grandkids were required to attend — that’s straight out of our family’s story. Special recipes. Special moments. And all sorts of leftovers.